GAA19CA359 · Autogyro Gmbh Cavalon
Autogyro Gmbh Cavalon · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From J. Randy McKnight Nephi Municipal Airport (U14) to J. Randy McKnight Nephi Municipal Airport (U14)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA359
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Autogyro Gmbh Cavalon
- Aircraft type
- Autogyro CAVALON
- Category
- Gyroplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N882M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From J. Randy McKnight Nephi Municipal Airport (U14), Nephi, UTTo J. Randy McKnight Nephi Municipal Airport (U14), Nephi, UT
- Aircraft age
- Built the same year (2019)
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of control in flight
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during takeoff, he rotated around 55 knots and that the gyroplane instantly yawed left about 45°. The pilot reported that he was "behind the power curve" and that the gyroplane could not climb or gain airspeed. The gyroplane began to descend, the pilot turned left, and the gyroplane landed hard and rolled to the right side.
The pilot added that he believed that the gyroplane initially yawed left during the climb because of the "P-factor due to [a newly installed] more powerful engine" and that he failed to add right rudder input to correct. He added that it was his first test flight with the new engine.
The gyroplane sustained substantial damage to the tailboom.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the gyroplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's insufficient rudder input during takeoff, which resulted in a loss of yaw control and a hard landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA359
- Event ID
- 20190619X22528
- Case number
- GAA19CA359
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2019-06-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: fa1e4a7417dfaae4650a74646f0f573acb680deed51cd543f805030ad5469fae; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:17:58.312Z.